Dominican Republic Inflation

Dominican Republic: Inflation rises further in April

May 12, 2014

In April, consumer prices rose 0.43% over the previous month, which was below the 0.52% rise recorded in March. According to the Central Bank, the increase mainly reflected higher prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as for transportation.

Annual headline inflation rose from 3.0% in March to 3.5% in April and marked the highest rate in four months. As a result, inflation is now at the lower bound of Central Bank's tolerance margin of plus/minus 1.0 percentage points around its 4.5% target rate.

At its meeting on 29 April, the Central Bank maintained its monetary policy rate at 6.25%, which followed a similar decision in March. The Bank justified its decision by pointing out that growth in the developed economies is gradual and that domestic inflationary pressures are subdued.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants expect inflation to end the year at 4.7%, which is unchanged over last month's projection. Panelists project that inflation will moderate to 4.3% in 2015.